About the Toronto Star

Published on Tue Oct 16 2012

History of The Toronto Star
In 1892 Toronto was a bustling city of 180,000 with six newspapers competing for readers when a seventh daily, a self-styled "Paper for the People", suddenly appears on the streets.

Today, the Toronto Star is Canada's largest daily newspaper, with the largest readership in the country. It is published seven days a week in the Greater Toronto Area and is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The newspaper is printed at its production facility, The Toronto Star Press Centre, located in Vaughan, just north of Toronto. The Press Centre houses six MAN Roland presses and its extensive capacity allows for the use of full colour throughout the newspaper every day for both editorial and advertising purposes.

The Toronto Star Statement of Principles

The Star's basic aim as a news organization is to engage in the full and frank dissemination of news and opinion, and to do so working within the highest standards of journalistic integrity. Our core mission as defined by Toronto Star publisher Joseph E. Atkinson is to focus public attention on injustices of all kinds and on reforms designed to correct them.

The Toronto Star publisher, Joseph E. Atkinson, believed that his newspaper had a social responsibility to its readers and the people of Toronto. Having experienced childhood poverty, Atkinson created a charity more than a century ago that helped needy children during the summer months. A few short years later, he realized yet again that there was a need to help less-privileged children at Christmas … a time of year most enjoyed by children. And so the two charities were created … to help put a smile on the face of children.